EAT STREET IN SHIVAJI NAGAR AND THE (IN)FAMOUS BEEF MARKET

Shivaji Nagar eat street is probably the only place you can go and ask for ‘Beef’ without any fear in Karnataka. As a person who has been residing for more than 1 year in Bangalore, I have never explored the Eat streets of Bengaluru, but this one had me on the hook. I was specifically looking for places which are open even during night time just because I don’t like to travel during day time. So, when I came to know about Shivaji Nagar eat street by a friend of mine, I didn’t think twice. I was all ready to explore the place. I went there during night time, which was around 12:00 AM, even during that time the street was live, it was packed with people. We went to the first shop we saw, it was a Kebab shop. The vendors quickly got us all the varieties they had, they even had quill fry and I should tell they were indeed very tasty, the masalas and the juiciness in the kebab was indeed upto the mark. After trying all their Kebabs, they asked us whether we want to try their beef roast, first we thought that it was some sort of joke, but then we realised that they were asking us seriously. We were confused first, as we thought that Beef is banned in Karnataka, then the vendors told us that no one is going to question them, as it is their ‘territory’. We were not sure about having it, so we skipped it. After sitting there for like one hour they asked us to go by telling us that, ‘It’s not safe here after 1:30 AM’, they felt genuinely concerned for our safety. But, there was still a crowd in the street, since we have only tried non-vegetarian food, we also wanted vegetarian food and sweets.

Figure 1: Busy streets of Shivaji Nagar food street.

Figure 2: Kebab Center

While getting up from the shop, we realised that we were sitting in front of the beef market. We talked to the vendors about how they managed during the quarantine?, and what all hardships they had gone through because of the COVID-19 pandemic? How did it affect their business ?. To which they replied that like any other person they also had a hard time, they lost their business and job and how difficult it was for them to earn a 3 time meal. But, the situation didn’t get under control even after the pandemic, as their customers have reduced. Most of the people have become reluctant to eat from outside because of the hygiene issues. Also, they seemed to be tensed that there have been rumours about having a next lockdown.

Figure 3: Beef roast preparations

After listening to them, we went to the nearby shop. We didn’t actually look up the name of the shop. We casually went inside and ordered some vegetable fried rice, it was really bad and spiced up. The sweets were really good, but we can’t expect an all soft sweet rasagulla and badushah, though they weren’t too soft, they tasted good. Chicken rolls and Mutton Samosas were one of the best things which I had from there, the quantity was pretty good for the price which they offered. After 1:30 AM the crowd significantly reduced and because of that we couldn’t stay there for a long time. But a friend of mine who has visited there earlier told me that there are shops which offer rice bread varieties along with chicken stew, but we weren't able to find those, seems like post lockdown most of the shops got shut.

Figure 4: Mouth watering Rasagulla, Badhusha

We couldn’t explore there much because of their earlier warnings that it's not safe to be there at night after 1:00 AM. So we took off from there by 1:45 AM. Even Though it was for a short time, it felt good to be there, conversing with the vendors by having good food.